Kilburn and the High Roads...
... is about all I know of Kilburn, yet I'll be moving there in the next few days to start a new job in London. For a chap who spent his formative years in Devon (albeit with a staunchly northern heritage) with recent sojourns in Belfast (4 years) and Manchester (the last 2) this is a daunting move. I'd always associated myself with those who viewed London with a sort of haughty disdain mixed with a sense that it wasn't for us (the Peter Kay "has tha nowt moist" gag rings so true for me!).
But, never the less, here I am, packing up too many CDs and books and readying myself for something new.
And so, I ask this of you, good sailors on this ship of Word, what the flip is there to do in Kilburn? Good pubs, record shops, pubs, music venues, pubs (did I mention pubs?) - all suggestions appreciated and genre isn't a problem for me.
The last time I asked you all for help to suggest some routes into folk music and boy did you come up trumps there!
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Abbey Road
You can walk up to Abbey Road and stroll across the famous crossing....
It's so near central London though pretty much everywhere is up for grabs. Personally I love the Borderline.
http://www.meanfiddler.com/displayPage_borderline.asp
Lucky you...
...you can almost certainly walk to here:
www.theluminaire.co.uk
a top venue (with a nice restaurant & pub downstairs)
Where streams of whiskey are flowing
It's worth keeping up to date with what's on at The Tricycle Theatre on Kilburn High Road - a small theatre, interesting plays, comedy etc.
There are lots of real Irish pubs in Kilburn still, real enough that in the 80s some of them would have a plate passed around for donations to "the cause".
I don't know which part of Kilburn you're moving to, but as mentioned above you're close enough to central London (and especially all the Camden area venues) that proximity beyond that doesn't especially matter.
Little Bay restaurant (in Belsize Road) shocked some northern friends of mine with its combination of quality and great value - cheaper than a meal out in Newcastle (that was a couple of years ago though). Small and Beautiful, another restaurant up the other end of the High Road, is nice too.
Allegedly David Mitchell and Robert Webb live in Kilburn, in case you're a "Peep Show" groupie.
Not a groupie as such...
... but if Big Suze lived in Kilburn I think it's safe to say I could be persuaded to peeping Tom-ery. I'm right on the High Road up by Kilburn tube station. Not a salubrious pad but it's got a bed and some space. That's all I need right now.
Kilburn
I lived there for close to ten years and left only recently. It's a decent place, and much more central than most people realise.
Pubs: The North London Tavern, The Black Lion. Avoid The Kingdom.
Venues: The Luminaire, Tricycle Theatre
Restaurants: Small & Beautiful
Record shops: Forget it, go to Camden
(Mitchell & Webb live in Cricklwood, AFAIK, which is a different prospect altogether).
Hooray for Cricklewood
Ah, Cricklewood - the link between Joe Strummer and The Goodies: "Willesden to Cricklewood" and "Cricklewood" respectively.
"Cricklewood, nothing ever happens there,
In Cricklewood, no-ones going anywhere,
In Cricklewood they've got nothing to do."
Like Kilburn, Cricklewood's not nearly as bad as is sometimes made out - I lived at the Cricklewood end of Kilburn for a a year or two, as well as the other end. No longer, though I still find myself in the North London Tavern sometimes.
Try 'The Westbury' on
Try 'The Westbury' on Kilburn High Road....It's more of a Gastropub, however great roast dinners, and lots of gigs and DJs on.